Thursday

Painting Shades of Gray in Devil's Kitchen


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I went back to Devil’s Kitchen in Platte Clove, this time to capture some of the strong contrasts in the morning light. Remember this little container, filled with Golden’s Neutral Gray Heavy Body Acrylics? The lid supports my Shades of Gray watercolor sketchbook, and having the premixed shades and tints has turned value sketching from a chore into one of my favorite ways to paint.
Here’s a picture of just the sketch. You can click it to enlarge it. The actual size is about 6×9″.
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The deep chasm in the right foreground is called Hell’s Hole. My goal was to take the viewer along that chasm and under the bridge, to the waterfall beyond. Although I’d not planned to do a color version of this scene, now that I’ve seen it in black and white, I really want to go back and do it again in color.
If you click here, you can see this bridge painted in oils from the other side on my Hudson Valley Painter site!